Thursday, July 18, 2019

The Lion King (2019) Review

The 2019 version of The Lion King is considered to be live action remake even though the entire movie was generated by computers. This movie shouldn't be considered live action, because the entire movie feels completely dead.


The Lion King is a remake of the 1994 animated classic and everyone pretty much knows what it's about. For those that don't, The Lion King tells the story of a lion cub named Simba, who must deal with the loss of his father, Mufasa. While Simba is away, recovering from this tragedy, he runs into Timon and Pumba, a meerkat and warthog, who try and teach him how to live a carefree life. As Simba gets older, life starts to catch up with him and he must return home and take what is rightfully his.

Let's start with what I like about The Lion King. The first one is pretty obvious, but it's the visuals. This movie looks fantastic. For most of the movie, it's impossible to tell that all of it is computer generated. It looks just like one of those Disney Nature documentaries that come out every year. I loved the way the animals moved and would interact with one another. It was all just so life like. Also baby Simba was absolutely adorable. Every time he showed up on screen, I couldn't help but let out a little "Awwwwww, he's so cute!".

Another thing I really enjoyed about The Lion King was Timon and Pumba. They were voiced by Billy Eichner and Seth Rogan and they couldn't have been more perfect for these roles. They brought this energy to the movie that was severely lacking before they showed up roughly halfway through the movie. For the most part all of their jokes landed and their rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight was absolutely wonderful.

I also surprisingly really enjoyed Chiwetel Ejiofor's performance as the villainous Scar, Simba's uncle. When the first trailer came out, I was part of #NotMyScar, but after seeing this version, I am no longer a part of that hashtag. He did a great job of being menacing and commanding the screen whenever he was around.

Now let me get to the part that hurts me the most, what I didn't like about The Lion King. Unfortunately for me, there is a lot that didn't work with this movie. The first thing was the way the animals looked when they talked. The mouth movement for the most part did not match what was coming out of their mouths. At times it was really distracting and would take me out of the movie. Also, there was no emotion coming from the animals. The worst part was when Simba's dad dies and Simba is extremely distraught. The look on his face was completely flat, he looked just like he had previously in the movie when he was happy. There wasn't any sort of movement in the ears or eyes that normally appear when an animal is sad.

Another disappointing part of the movie was the lack of energy during the first half of the movie. All of the musical numbers that take place in the first half felt flat, there was no life to them. It was one of those things where I felt like the writers should have done some rewriting and completely remove the songs and find a way to tell the story without them. The musical score by Hans Zimmer also did not help with this. By itself, the score is great, but it did not work with what was happening on the screen. It never seemed to match up with the characters movements on the screen or the emotion of the scenes.

Overall, The Lion King was really disappointing. Yes, it's gorgeous to look at and contains a few solid performances, but as a whole it doesn't work. The animals don't show any emotion and the mouth movement when talking is super distracting. This is one of those movies, where I'm not sure I can recommend people go see this in theaters. You most likely own the animated version and would be better served to just watch that one from the comfort of your home. Maybe when this new one comes to a streaming service, you can give it a watch at home.

2 1/2 out of 5 Stars

Thursday, July 11, 2019

Crawl Movie Review

Movies dealing with natural disasters or creatures tend to be movies I gravitate towards. So obviously, if you combine those two, changes are I am going to love the movie. Not surprisingly that ended up being the case with Crawl.



In Crawl, a Category 5 hurricane is bearing down on Florida and Haley Keller (Kaya Scodelario) can't reach her dad, Dave (Barry Pepper). Haley starts to panic and decides to drive to her childhood home to see if she can see what he is up to. When she gets to the house and can't find him anywhere, she decides to check the crawlspace where she finds her dad, who is now injured, as well as a couple of giant alligators that are protecting the only way out. With the hurricane intensifying, the crawlspace starts to flood so Haley must find a way to save herself as well as her dad.

The thing I love most about Crawl is the havoc that the gators cause. When it comes to creature movies, I go in to them looking forward to seeing the carnage they create and seeing the body count rise. With Crawl, I was not disappointed. The setting is contained mainly to the house, but the gators are still able to find ways to eat or badly injure a fair amount of people. That probably comes across a little twisted, but that's what these movies are for. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when someone is swimming in the water and the camera moves into the air and you just see 5 gators swarm around him and just grab on to a few different body parts and enjoy some lunch.

Another aspect I enjoy was the father/daughter relationship between Haley and Dave. Early on in the movie, there are flashbacks that show Dave being Haley's swim coach. Because he spent so much time focusing on coaching her, his marriage became strained and Haley ends up feeling like she is guilty for causing her parents marriage to end. I really enjoy seeing Barry Pepper in movies and felt he did a great job playing Dave. He is wonderful at playing that broken dad that is willing to do anything to protect his daughter. Kaya is also fantastic has Haley. The movie mainly focuses on her and if she doesn't sell the paranoia and fear it would fall apart. Luckily, Kaya does a great job and the scenes with her father get pretty emotional at times.

The only real criticism I have for Crawl is the same one most of these types of movies have, characters just make stupid decisions or have injuries that should be pretty life-threatening, but they just act like it was a bug bite within 5 minutes of it occurring. It's a minor nitpick that just comes with the territory of movies like this.

Overall, I really enjoyed Crawl. The relationship between Haley and Dave was believable and helped fill in the slow periods between the action. The gator action was a blast to watch and at times pretty intense and gory. Also, the movie gets extra points for having the main character's last name be Keller. Crawl is a fun time at the movies and does a great job of filling in the gaps between all the franchise blockbusters out this summer. I recommend it.

4 out of 5 Stars

My Mid-2019 Movie Rankings

Here is my ranking for all the movies I saw in theaters during the first half of 2019:

  1. Apollo 11 (5 Stars)
  2. Avengers: Endgame (4 1/2 Stars)
  3. If Beale Street Could Talk (4 1/2 Stars)
  4. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (4 1/2 Stars)
  5. Roma (4 Stars)
  6. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (4 Stars)
  7. Us (4 Stars)
  8. Cold War (4 Stars)
  9. Toy Story 4 (4 Stars)
  10. Late Night (4 Stars)
  11. Booksmart (3 1/2 Stars)
  12. Pokemon: Detective Pikachu (3 1/2 Stars)
  13. Captain Marvel (3 1/2 Stars)
  14. The Kid Who Would Be King (3 1/2 Stars)
  15. Arctic (3 1/2 Stars)
  16. Shazam! (3 1/2 Stars)
  17. Rocketman (3 1/2 Stars)
  18. Long Shot (3 1/2 Stars)
  19. Yesterday (3 1/2 Stars)
  20. Alita: Battle Angel (3 1/2 Stars)
  21. Aladdin (3 1/2 Stars)
  22. John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum (3 1/2 Stars)
  23. The Mustang (3 1/2 Stars)
  24. Pet Sematary (3 1/2 Stars)
  25. Capernaum (3 1/2 Stars)
  26. Hotel Mumbai (3 1/2 Stars)
  27. On the Basis of Sex (3 1/2 Stars)
  28. Fighting With My Family (3 Stars)
  29. Happy Death Day 2U (3 Stars)
  30. Child's Play (3 Stars)
  31. Men In Black: International (3 Stars)
  32. Gloria Bell (3 Stars)
  33. Dark Phoenix (3 Stars)
  34. The Dead Don't Die (3 Stars)
  35. Missing Link (3 Stars)
  36. Greta (3 Stars)
  37. Brightburn (3 Stars)
  38. Ben is Back (3 Stars)
  39. Tolkien (3 Stars)
  40. High Life (3 Stars)
  41. Glass (2 1/2 Stars)
  42. Five Feet Apart (2 1/2 Stars)
  43. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2 1/2 Stars)
  44. Dumbo (2 1/2 Stars)
  45. The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2 1/2 Stars)
  46. The Beach Bum (1 1/2 Stars)
  47. Hellboy (1 1/2 Stars)